1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric ink transfer recording method and more particularly to an electric ink transfer recording method for use in a noiseless typewriter, printing the record that a desk-model electronic calculator provides, output of an electronic calculator, video recording of a facsimile telegraph and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the efficiency of electronic calculator, facsimile or the like is highly enhanced, its terminal means, namely a printer, has also come to hold an important position. This terminal means is classified roughly into an impact printer (mechanical printer) and a non impact printer. As the non impact recording system, further, there are known (1) electrophotography, (2) thermosensitive recording, (3) electrosensitive recording, (4) thermosensitive transfer, (5) electric ink transfer and the like. However, the former impact printer is defective in that it is unable to avoid the noise generated structurally therefrom.
On the other hand, the latter (non impact printer) recording system is surely profitable in that it does not generate noise, but includes various problems to be solved. For instance, the electrophotographic system is defective not only in that it requires five steps such as electrification-exposure-development-transfer-cleaning and consequently the process is complicated but also in that it is inferior in reliability as to whether it always produces high quality transfer images and it is difficult to be small-sized. The thermosensitive recording system is defective in that it is observed to have a hard point to settle in respect of the preservability of thermosensitive recording paper used therein and that the thermosensitive recording paper per se must be a processed paper having a thermosensitive recording layer and therefore recording can not be done on plain paper. The electrosensitive recording system is surely profitable in that sparking ink transfer may be done on plain paper, but is defective in that sparking destroy gives out a foul smell and generates cinders. The thermosensitive transfer system is defective in that the use of a thermal head hampers to obtain a high density image (the maximum of density is about 10 lines/mm) and further retards the recording speed (the maximum of speed is about 1 m sec/dot).
The electric ink transfer system (electric ink transfer recording system), which falls under the same category as the non impact printer, is advantageous, unlike the non impact printer, in that a high density image can be obtained on plain paper, the recording speed is high, and the apparatus employed in this system can be made compact. In view of this, many trials have been made to further improve the electric ink transfer paper used in this system and the system per se, but the fact is that the satisfactorily improved electric ink transfer paper and system have not been proposed yet.
This will be more detailed hereinafter citing examples, that is (i) U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,713,822 and 3,744,611 use the electric ink transfer paper (electric ink transfer recording material) comprising three layers such as insulating layer, electrically conductive layer and ink layer. (ii) Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 7246/1978 uses the electric ink transfer paper comprising two layers such as metal powder dispersed electric layer (metal powder dispersed conductive layer) and ink layer. These hitherto proposed recording systems using electric ink transfer recording materials comprise applying electricity in a ribbon for generating Joule's heat therein, melting the ink contained in an ink layer by Joule's heat, and transferring the melted ink to a sheet to be recorded. However, these electric ink transfer recording materials are defective in that said Joule's heat softens the substrate contacting the electrode needle (recording electrode needle) and scrapes off part of the substrate, and this scraped-off substrate part adheres onto the surface of the electrode needle, whereby the travelling faculty of the electrode needle is deteriorated, in other words the normal recording operation is hampered.